Obama: US, Latin America must strengthen economies SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — President Barack Obama came to Latin America eager to move the region’s relationship with the U.S. beyond fighting drugs and organized crime, yet the pervasive problems still trailed him throughout his three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. In the Costa Rican capital Friday, Obama defended his administration’s efforts to stem U.S. demand for drugs that many regional leaders see as a driving factor in their securit...

Solid job gains in April ease fears about economy WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy showed last month why it remains the envy of industrialized nations: In the face of tax increases and federal spending cuts, employers added a solid 165,000 jobs in April — and far more in February and March than anyone thought. The hiring in April drove down the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 percent and sent a reassuring sign that the U.S. job market is improving. The economy is benefiting from...

Big revisions help brighten monthly US jobs report WASHINGTON (AP) — The 165,000 jobs the U.S. economy added in April weren’t the only reason to be cheered by Friday’s employment report. Nearly as significant were the Labor Department’s revised estimates of how many jobs employers added in the previous two months. Whenever the government issues its employment report for the past month, it also revises the job totals for the previous two. It turns out, the department said Friday, that many more...

States fear loss of health care aid WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of people with serious medical problems are in danger of losing coverage under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul because of cost overruns, state officials say. At risk is the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, a transition program that’s become a lifeline for the so-called “uninsurables” — people with serious medical conditions who can’t get coverage elsewhere. The program helps bridge the gap for th...

US orders new visa reviews for arriving students WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department ordered border agents to verify that every international student who arrives in the U.S. has a valid student visa, according to an internal memorandum obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The new procedure is the government’s first security change directly related to the Boston bombings. The order, which is effective immediately, came from a senior official at U.S. Customs and Border Prote...

NRA official: ’Culture war’ more than gun rights HOUSTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association kicked off its annual convention Friday with a warning to its members they are engaged in a “culture war” that stretches beyond gun rights, further ramping up emotions surrounding the gun control debate. NRA First Vice President James Porter, a Birmingham, Ala., attorney who will assume the organization’s presidency Monday, issued a full-throated challenge to President Barack Obama in the wake of a...

Timber! Forest Service asks states to return cash WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service is in the business of preventing fires, not starting them. Yet the agency set off alarms in Congress and state capitols across the West by citing automatic spending cuts as the basis for demanding that dozens of states return $17.9 million in federal subsidies. And it’s all come down to a bureaucratic squabble over whether the money is subject to so-called sequestration because of the year it was paid ...

2016: Rare same-state pairings in the early stages MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The early stages of the 2016 presidential race feature an unusual cluster of high-powered potential candidates hailing from the same states, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Rep. Paul Ryan among them. Walker gained Republican Party cult-figure status when he beat back a labor union attempt to oust him from office last year. A few weeks later, Ryan shot into the GOP stratosphere as the party’s vice presidential nominee. Now,...

Halter, Ross trade jabs over health care LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Bill Halter on Friday criticized Democratic rival Mike Ross and the Republican candidates for Arkansas governor for opposing the federal health care law, saying their stances would have prevented the state from providing insurance to thousands of low-income residents. Ross, meanwhile, questioned how Halter planned to fund an expanded college scholarship program without cutting state services or raising taxes. The two Democra...

Clintons attend Little Rock airport ceremony LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reminisced Friday about their experiences at the Little Rock airport that now bears their names. “More than 40 years ago, the first time I came to Arkansas, I flew into this airport,” Hillary Clinton told hundreds gathered at a dedication ceremony. And long before the Clintons logged so many miles in the sky, the former president said he first...

Anti-gun groups focus on Pryor with ads, visit LITTLE ROCK (AP) — As one of five Democrats who opposed expanding background checks for firearm sales, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas is facing pressure from gun control groups who are urging him to rethink a position they suggest could haunt him during his re-election bid next year. Mayors Against Illegal Guns on Thursday brought the father of a student killed in the Newtown, Conn. school shooting last year to Arkansas in the hopes of arran...

House Democratic leader talks health careLITTLE ROCK (AP) — U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi defended passage of the federal health care overhaul Thursday during a visit to Arkansas. “Many members of Congress believe that passing the Affordable Care Act was the most monumental achievement in our own lives of public service,” Pelosi told the hundreds gathered in Little Rock at an event organized by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. Pelosi received a...

Officials: Israel launches airstrike into Syria WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel launched an airstrike into Syria, apparently targeting a suspected weapons site, U.S. officials said Friday night. The strike occurred overnight Thursday into Friday, the officials told The Associated Press. It did not appear that a chemical weapons site was targeted, they said, and one official said the strike appeared to have hit a warehouse. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not au...

Obama, Mexican president talk economy, security MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama sought on Thursday to tamp down a potential rift with Mexico over a dramatic shift in the cross-border fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, acceding that Mexicans had the right to determine how best to tackle the violence that has plagued their country. Since taking office in December, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has moved to end the widespread access that U.S. security agencies...

US suicide rate rose sharply among middle-aged NEW YORK (AP) — The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans climbed a startling 28 percent in a decade, a period that included the recession and the mortgage crisis, the government reported Thursday. The trend was most pronounced among white men and women in that age group. Their suicide rate jumped 40 percent between 1999 and 2010. But the rates in younger and older people held steady. And there was little change among middle-aged blacks, Hi...

Fresh off victory, NRA holds convention in Houston AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The National Rifle Association has spent much of the past year under siege, ardently defending gun rights following mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut and fighting back against mounting pressure for stricter laws in Washington and state capitols across the country. Now, after winning a major victory over President Barack Obama with the defeat of a gun control bill in the U.S. Senate, the powerful gun-rights lobby w...

Decades-old question: Is antibacterial soap safe? WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a chemical that’s been in U.S. households for more than 40 years, from the body wash in your bathroom shower to the knives on your kitchen counter to the bedding in your baby’s basinet. But federal health regulators are just now deciding whether triclosan — the germ-killing ingredient found in an estimated 75 percent of antibacterial liquid soaps and body washes sold in the U.S. — is ineffective, or worse, harmful. The U...

Miss. ricin-letters case headed to grand jury OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — A dust mask that tested positive for ricin also contained DNA from a Mississippi man suspected of sending poison-laced letters to President Barack Obama and others, an FBI agent testified Thursday. The testimony came during a preliminary hearing for James Everett Dutshcke, 41, who was arrested Saturday at his home in Tupelo and charged with making ricin, the same substance mailed on April 8 to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker...

Hagel: US rethinking possibly arming Syrian rebels WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels who have been locked in a civil war with the Syrian regime for more than two years, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday, becoming the first top U.S. official to publicly acknowledge the reassessment. During a Pentagon news conference with British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond, Hagel said arming the rebels was one option that the administrati...

US calls for NKorea amnesty for sentenced American WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. called Thursday for North Korea to grant amnesty and immediately release a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor for “hostile acts” against the state. Kenneth Bae, 44, a Washington state man described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released without serving out their terms, some ...